Offerings

Offerings.—Offerings are gifts made immediately to God, to be employed without change for divine worship or for the needs of the ministers of divine worship, the purpose being to worship God by the tribute paid.

(a) Thus, offerings are gifts; that is, they are offered to God without the compulsion of any law, or at least without any determination by law of the amount to be given. Natural reason teaches man that he should bestow something from his goods in this manner as a thank offering for the divine bounty, when there are representatives of God to whom the gift may be given. The gift should be a free-will offering (Exod., xxv, 2), unless there are special circumstances that render it a debt, such as contract, promise, custom, or the need of the ministers of the Church.

(b) They are made immediately to God Himself, and so they differ from tithes or other dues that are paid to the clergy for their support.

(c) They are not changed at all in the act of worship (e.g., an offering of sacred vessels or altar furnishings), or at least they are not changed into the sacred condition of a sacrificial victim (e.g., offerings of candles, incense, etc., that are consumed during Mass). Thus, simple oblation differs from sacrificial oblation.

(d) They are devoted to the service of God, since they are gifts made to Him. Hence, they are used in divine worship and, if consecrated (e.g., chalices, vestments), may not be used for other purposes; or they are used for the needs of the ministers of divine worship or of the poor, since those who serve the altar should live by the altar (I Cor., ix. 14), and Our Lord shared His purse with the poor (Matt., xxvi. 9, 11).

(e) They are given as a mark of honor to God, especially in recognition of favors received from Him. Thus, in the Old Law the people were obliged to give the first-fruits of their fields and crops to God, in thanksgiving for the gift of the promised land and of its fruits (Deut., xxvi. 10).

Goods Unsuitable as Offerings to God.—There are certain goods, however, that should not be used as offerings to God.

(a) Thus, those goods that are forbidden by positive law may not be offered to God. In the Old Law certain animals could not be offered to God, either because they were legally unclean (e.g., dogs were associated with pagan rites and were regarded as symbols of rapacity), or because they were of inferior quality (e.g., a blind or lame sheep or other animal worthless to its owner).

(b) Those goods that the offerer has no right to give away or that are unsuitable on account of circumstances may never be given as offerings to God. Thus, one may not make an offering to God of money that belongs to another (Ecclus., xxxiv. 21); a son may not give as a gift to God the money he should spend on his needy parents (Matt., xv. 3-6). Neither may one offer corrupted wine for the Mass, nor the wages of prostitution to the church if there will be scandal, nor gifts that are mean and contemptible, etc.

691. Matter to be treated. - We can offer something to God either a) by handing it over, as happens in sacrifice and in oblations of various kinds, whether made to God Himself, or to His ministers, the priests; - or b) by promising something, which happens in a vow, whose essence, matter, obligation, and de-obligation are to be considered successively.

S. Th. II-II, q. 85 and q. 86, a. 1; I-II, q. 102, a. 2, 3, 4.

692. Sacrifice (offer) is said from making sacred, and therefore signifies an act by which man makes something sacred; hence:

1. in the broadest sense it signifies an act or work of any virtue whatever, done in honor of God, and commanded by religion, for example, works of mercy or obedience (Heb. XIII, 15-16; Ps. L, 19);

2. in a stricter sense it is every act elicited by the virtue of religion, namely, one which has no other goodness except because it is done in honor of God; in this sense internal sacrifice (Ps. XLIX, 14; I Pet. II, 5, 9), by which the soul offers itself to God, is more sacrifice than external sacrifice: for exterior worship is nothing except the expression of the interior;

3. in the strictest and proper sense it is the principal act of external and public worship, distinct from all others, most solemn and most excellent, because it more perfectly testifies to the supreme dominion of God and the full dependence of all things upon Him; hence it is to make sacred by excellence (Os. VI, 6; I Reg. XV, 22).

Consequently, by extension and improperly, sacrifice also designates the term of the sacrificial action, namely, the thing sacrificed or victim, the host, insofar as by sacrifice it has been offered to God and made sacred; or the sacred thing made itself.

693. Sacrifice strictly so called is of natural law. - It is proved:

If the excellence of the person to be worshiped differs from the excellence of others not only in degree but in order, then in society special signs of honor must be exhibited and reserved to him for testifying to his excellence.

But such is the excellence of God, who is the first principle and last end, from whom all things have being and acting, and who is the supreme lord of all things, who can create all things and also destroy them.

Therefore in external and social worship special signs of honor must be exhibited and reserved to Him, by which we testify to His supreme dominion and our subjection.

Now that God is the first principle and end, the supreme lord of all things, and has the power of destroying all things just as of creating them, we signify most fittingly by sacrifice, especially because no other external sign of oblation or adoration exists which of its nature represents the supreme dominion of God and our dependence in every mode, and in fact is reserved to God.

Therefore this sign, which is sacrifice, must be exhibited and reserved to God. - History proves that this has been done at every time among all peoples (Cf. C. Trid., sess. 22, c. 1).

It is confirmed: External and public worship is ordered so that a right estimation of God may be formed in us, and so that we may be stirred up to a special reverence of God. But for this a special worship reserved to God is required. "We see this," says St. Thomas, q. 85, a. 2, "observed in every republic, that they honor the supreme ruler with some singular sign, which, if it were offered to anyone else, would be the crime of lese-majesty."

694. Sacrifice strictly so called is defined: The external oblation of a sensible and permanent thing, through some alteration or destruction of it, made by a priest to God, for testifying to His dominion and our subjection. In this definition there is indicated:

1. The genus to which sacrifice pertains: oblation, by which something is offered to God to be deputed to divine worship; and indeed external oblation, because it pertains to external and public worship. Thus it differs from devotion and from merely internal sacrifice.

2. The matter: of a sensible and permanent thing; sensible, indeed, because sacrifice is a sensible sign, since it is made for signifying the internal oblation of the mind, by which man offers and subjects himself to God as supreme Lord; and permanent also, namely, something apt both for signifying the permanent dominion of God over man and over all creation, and for representing man himself, who hands himself over to God.

Through this, oblation differs from adoration, because the latter exhibits to God a transient action, for example, genuflection, while the former exhibits to God a permanent thing, which in sacrifice is offered as the substitute of our sensible and permanent substance; hence it is understood why especially those animals and other things were employed for sacrifices which serve for the sustenance of man.

3. The form: through some alteration or destruction, by which, namely, in order to signify God's supreme dominion over all things, the thing is withdrawn from every human use and totally and in perpetuity passes into the dominion of God, and thus is made sacred: whether it be said that the oblation is made to God formally through the alteration itself, which seems truer; or whether it be said that the alteration is a condition prerequired for sacrificial oblation, as pleases some more.

It is not required that the alteration always be had through real or physical destruction, but an equivalent can suffice, namely, one which as to exterior form or according to human estimation is equivalent to a real alteration in the order of signifying: thus a thing which is rendered unfit for natural uses, such as wine poured out, or is placed on the way of destruction, and whatever bears the appearance of destruction so that it is apt for expressing the signification proper to sacrifice. These things are customarily explained more where the Mass is treated.

By destruction or alteration sacrifice is distinguished from all other oblations: in a simple oblation the thing, while it is offered, remains whole, although afterward it can be consumed; in sacrifice the oblation itself is made formally through destruction. Hence St. Thomas, q. 86, a. 1: "The name of oblation is common to all things which are exhibited for the worship of God, so that if something is exhibited for the worship of God, as to be consumed in some sacred thing which ought to be made from it, it is both an oblation and a sacrifice; but if it is exhibited so that it may remain whole, to be deputed to divine worship or to be expended for the use of ministers, it will be an oblation, not a sacrifice." And again, q. 85, a. 3, ad 3: "They are properly called sacrifices when something is done concerning the things offered to God, as that animals were killed and burned (bloody sacrifice), that bread is broken and eaten and blessed (unbloody sacrifice). And this is what the name itself sounds forth, for sacrifice is said from the fact that man makes something sacred. But oblation is directly said when something is offered to God, even if nothing is done concerning it, as coins or loaves are said to be offered on the altar, concerning which nothing is done. Hence every sacrifice is an oblation, but not conversely."

4. The efficient cause, namely, the minister: by a priest. To express the public sense of religion in the name of society, a public person is required, that is, one who enjoys public authority or is legitimately deputed by it, so that he may act for all or in the name of all.

Thus, before cities and kingdoms were constituted, when there were only families and tribes, the father of the family or the firstborn were as it were naturally indicated for offering sacrifice; afterward kings also sometimes did this, as Melchisedech; but for the most part distinct ministers were designated for this: for it is fitting that in society there be ministers separated from the people, permanently instituted for this, who in the strict sense are called priests; once these have been instituted, such an act of sacrifice would be attempted invalidly by others. But since Christ was constituted the head of all men, He was naturally the priest of all humanity. But if God reserves to Himself the ordering of all worship, as was done in the supernatural order, no other can institute sacrifice or priesthood (Heb. V, 1-4).

5. The end of sacrifice, both the end to whom: made to God, for sacrifice is an act of religion; and the end which: for testifying to His supreme dominion and our subjection.

695. Diverse species of sacrifice. - Every sacrifice is essentially and primarily latreutic, because it is made in honor of God, to testify that He is the first principle upon whom man totally depends and by whom he is whatever he is. From this it follows that man has from God whatever he has, and awaits whatever he will receive, and, if he turns himself away from God by sin, is worthy of the penalty of death; sacrifices can also be offered for acknowledging these things. Hence by reason of the end, sacrifice is divided into latreutic (huldeoffer), which is specially offered for the worship of God; and eucharistic (dankoffer), for benefits received; and impetratory (smeekoffer), for benefits to be received; and propitiatory (zoenoffer), which is also specially made for placating God offended and repairing sin.

In the Old Law, by reason of form and end, there were distinguished: the holocaust, which was a latreutic sacrifice; the host for sin or for offense, which was offered more specially for sins; and the pacific host for benefits received or to be received.

696. The sacrifice of the New Law is more eminent than all others. - Sacrifice, although considered in common it is of natural law, nevertheless is not so as a particular sacrifice to be offered in such a thing or in such a mode. But by human or divine institution, in various times and among various peoples, sacrifices have been diverse. Under the law of nature they were determined from the choice of men; under the Mosaic law, by God; under the new Christian law there is only one sacrifice: the death of Christ on the cross and symbolically renewed in the Mass, which is proved in the treatise on Redemption and on the Sacrifice of the Mass.

The sacrifice of the New Law differs from the ancient sacrifices:

1. in dignity, by which it is infinitely distant from them: a) on the part of the one offering, who is the Son of God made man, and b) on the part of the thing offered, which is His body and blood;

2. in end, because it is offered at the same time for the fourfold end;

3. in efficacy: it is not only of value from the work of the men offering, but by intrinsic dignity is always acceptable to God, whom it infallibly honors; hence from the work worked it not only removes legal uncleanness, but, as far as is of itself, also infallibly obtains grace;

4. in perfection and stability, because it prefigures, announces, and prepares no other, but itself is prefigured by all others, which therefore, when it came, had to cease (C. Trid., sess. 22, c. 1).

697. The sacrifice of the New Law exists under a twofold form: as bloody on the cross and as unbloody in the Mass. - The sacrifice of the New Law is simply and substantially one, that is, by reason of the principal offerer, by reason of the thing offered, and by reason of the merits and satisfactions; modally and secundum quid, that is, by reason of the form under which the victim is offered, it is diverse (C. Trid., sess. 22, c. 1 and 2):

a) The bloody oblation of the cross (Mt. XXVI, 28; John XVII, 19), whose victim was the Son of God made flesh so that He might be substituted for men (Heb. II, 11, 17; I Tim. II, 5, 6; Rom. V; Eph. V, 2); - the form was not so much the material killing as the voluntary laying down of the soul and disposition of His own life, made in honor of God, and externally manifested in the free permission of death; - the minister was not the killers themselves, but Christ, who voluntarily admitted the death being inflicted, while He could have impeded it (John X, 17, 18); - the value (namely, the honor of God, merit, and satisfaction) was infinite. Hence there will never be a new sacrifice, meritorious and satisfactory, because Christ satisfied for the sins of all and merited for all the graces of salvation as to sufficiency (Heb. VII, 27; IX, 25-28; X, 10, 14); but as to efficacy, the application of the merits and our own cooperation are required.

b) The unbloody sacrifice of the altar, which is made both for acknowledging the supreme dominion of God, and for applying to us the merits and satisfactions of the cross, and consequently is not a blasphemy against the sacrifice of the cross nor does it derogate from it (C. Trid., sess. 22, c. 2, can. 4).

Yet they differ:

1. Christ on the cross was the sole offerer; but in the Mass the minister offers in the name of Christ as head, and of the faithful as members of the Church (C. Trid., c. 1).

2. Christ on the cross was the sole one offered; in the Mass the Church also is offered, which is represented by the victim who is its head: Christ.

3. Christ on the cross was offered in His own species, mortal, passible, bloodily; in the Mass He is offered under the species of bread and wine, immortal, impassible, and unbloodily; there real death intervened, here symbolic death intervenes.

4. The sacrifice of the cross was meritorious and satisfactory de condigno, and indeed infinitely, on account of the dignity of the one offering and of the one offered; hence it was offered once. The sacrifice of the Mass only applies the merits and satisfactions of the cross; hence it is to be offered until the consummation of the age.

WHEN God heaps us with his benefits, as a sign of our indigence, which before was not, he brings us into being. But while we acknowledge his gifts to us, because he has no need of our goods, whatever we offer in sacrifice must be brought to non-being, so that we may entreat him as the supreme lord of life and death, as well as the Alpha and the Omega, that is, the Beginning and the End, from whom all things proceed and in whom they likewise end: This is the one purpose of sacrifice. Hence the reason natural to itself, conscious of its duty, proclaimed from the beginning of the world that God was to be worshipped with victims; and Abel offered from the firstborn of his flock, upon which God looked with favor, as it is said: Genesis 4. For if the inhabitants of any kingdom are accustomed to offer their king some illustrious gift, that they may acknowledge that they and their goods are carried favorably by the king's protection, even though one person in the name of all presents it; how much more is the whole people bound to have a sacrifice, and a Priest, who may render to the Divine Majesty that signification of the soul pleasing to him, all deprecating God with one mouth; hence the sacrificing Nehemiah said: Receive, O Lord, the sacrifice for your whole people, for it is the public and chief act of Religion, as the Holy Doctor notes, 3. dist. 9. dub. 3.

HERE we treat of sacrifices in general; for on the sacrifices of the old Law I treated in the first part of the second part, Tract. de legibus, Disputat. 10. quaest. 8. De lege veteri. But on the Most August Sacrifice of the Mass, and at the same time on the shadowy sacrifices, I shall treat in the third part, Tract. de Eucharistia, disp. 2. at the beginning.

OBSERVE, following D. Bonaventure, in 3. dist. 9. dub. 1., that "sacrifice" is taken in many ways. First, it is taken commonly for anything done for the glory of God: and it signifies a sacred action, or some deed consecrated to the Divine majesty. Second, sacrifice is taken for an external office, which is performed and modified by a fixed rite for the glory of God, for acknowledging His majesty, for exhibiting internal devotion, and for professing servitude toward God as the Lord of all things; as when an animal is slaughtered or burned; or bread is broken and eaten.

Scriptures express that common notion of Sacrifice when they call the acts of the virtues sacrifices, as in Psalm 49, where the holy Doctor observes that in the Old Testament there were four kinds of sacrifices. For there was there a sacrifice which was not wholly burned: there was the holocaust, which was entirely consumed by fire: there was the oblation of solid things, such as bread and incense: the libation of liquids, wine, oil, etc. To these, he says, four sacrifices correspond. The Sacrifice of Justice, of which Psalm 4: Sacrifice a sacrifice of justice; the Sacrifice of penance, A contrite spirit to God, Psalm 50; third, the Sacrifice of praise, of which there Psalm 49; and fourth, of mortification, of which Rom. 12: Present your bodies a living host, holy, etc.

AND on Psalm 50, on the words Sacrifice, I would give, he says that in every Sacrifice there are three things: Devotion, Oblation, and Signification; and God loves the first two, not the last; and this is what is meant by: With holocausts you will not be delighted.

THIS distinction the holy Doctor acknowledges in sermon 5. Hexaëmer., where he divides the worship of God into praise and Sacrifice. Sacrifice was instituted by Abel Genesis 3 and used by Noë Genesis 9. It is likely, however, that he had learned it from Adam, as Suarez tract. 2. lib. 1. cap. 1. ex Angelico art. 1. ad 5 notes.

SO also the holy Doctor divides Sacrifice in 3. dist. 9. art. 2. quaest. 2. ad 2, saying that there is a Sacrifice of good operation, of devout prayer, and of immolation; and this third he says pertains to Latria, although prayer also, insofar as it is ordered to the worship of God as its preeminent act, is an act of Religion. In lib. 2. de profectu Religiosi he says there are given sacrifices of good will, of good action, of good speech, of sacred meditation, and of pious affection.

D. BONAVENTURE on Luke 2 says that at the Presentation of the Lord four persons made an offering: Ioseph, Mary, Simon, and Anna, because the soul that wishes to offer a true Sacrifice to God must have the company of the four Cardinal Virtues. By Simon, whose name means Hearing, Prudence is understood. The wise man that hears will be wiser. Prov. 1. By Anna, whose name means Grace, Temperance is understood: It is better to establish the heart with grace than with meats. Heb. 13. By Ioseph the just man, Justice is understood; and Ioseph means increase: 2 Corinth. 9: He will multiply your seed, and increase the growths of the fruits of your justice. By Mary, who is called Mistress, Fortitude is understood: Proverb. 16: Better is the patient man than the strong.

A Sacrifice, that is, something sacred to God, can certainly be vitiated by some evil circumstance; thus even the vow of Jephte, to sacrifice the first who met him from his house, is called a sacrifice, and yet it was perverse, as D. Bonav. teaches in 4. dist. 38. quaest. 2. ex D. August. super Iud. cap. 49. et qu. veter. testam. cap. 43, where he says that he was foolish in vowing and impious in paying.

First, it is necessary that the sacrifice be instituted by God, either by internal instinct, as were the sacrifices used by the Patriarchs in the Law of nature; or by a special command, as D. Bonav. teaches in 4. dist. 1. p. 2. quaest. 5; and all the more was this inherent in those sacrifices because they were in memory of the Redeemer to come, in whose faith they had their virtue. Therefore, for sacrifices to please God, they must be conformed to the will of God; and this we cannot know except by the right dictate of nature or by revelation.

Second, on the part of the offerer it is required that he be such as the Divine institution requires. Hence in ancient times sacrifices could not be offered except by persons dedicated to Divine worship. Whence in 1 Reg. 13 Saul is most gravely reprehended because he sacrificed, even though compelled by necessity. Therefore also in chapter 15 it is said: Obedience is better than victims, as the holy Doctor observes in Dicta, tit. 3. cap. 1.

From these things it follows that sacrifice is to be offered to the one true God alone, as D. Augustine says lib. 10. de civit. cap. 14.

Moreover, for the perfection of the sacrifice the same conditions are required as for prayer, of which we have spoken in disp. 3. quaest. 5. et 10. and the following.

It must be asserted that sacrifice is of the law of nature, at least in its foundation, as Suar. says Tract. 2. l. 1. cap. 5.

It is proved, because since we are subject to God, we ought to profess the servitude due to God; and since we consist of soul and body, we ought in a proportionate manner to acknowledge God not only by interior worship but also by exterior; and since we receive all things from Him, we ought to offer something back, as Valentia argues disp. 6. quaest. 4. punct. 3., citing D. Bonav. in 4. dist. 1. p. 2. quaest. 3. in corpore, D. Thom. 3. contra Gent. cap. 120, and D. Augustine, epistola 4.

Although sacrifice is of the law of nature in general; yet this or that Sacrifice is by Institution, as I shall show at the beginning of the Tract. de Eucharistia.

Although the oblations of first-fruits commanded in the Old Law were figurative, and therefore abrogated at this time, yet insofar as something was given to God out of Religion they were not abrogated; and therefore even at this time they can be offered to God, as D. Thom. says here, and Valentia disp. 6. quaest. 4. p. 4. The reason is given by S. Bonav. in 4. dist. 1. p. 1. quaest. 3.: because these are offered to God as due to the Creator, Benefactor, and Giver of all things; therefore they were offered from the instinct of nature even by those who did not acknowledge the figures, and now also they ought to endure for this reason, that we are bound to acknowledge God as the giver of all things.

This rite Gregory VII approves in cap. 11 Omnis de consecr. dist. 1., saying: Let every Christian take care to offer something at the solemnities of the Mass.

Nauar. Man. cap. 13. num. 19. and Sylvest. verbo decima say that where there is the custom of offering at Mass, it suffices if the greater part of the people offer, and therefore he does not sin who once or twice does not offer, unless he omits it out of contempt, or is the cause that the greater part of the people do not offer.

D. Thom. also notes art. 1. ad 3., with Cajetan, that although the one who is unwilling to make oblations should be punished by a superior, yet the priest, to whom those oblations were to be made, ought not to deny him the sacraments.

These oblations accrue to the Rector of the Church. So Sylvest. loc. cit. and Valentia here, following D. Thom. art. 2. The things offered, moreover, must be good, not vitiated. See Cajetan and Valentia. But this is so provided other things are also guarded against, namely that the things be not by the natural precept owed to others, for instance for the use of poor parents; or that they come from base gain. Hence nothing is to be offered from the wages of a brothel, as D. Thom. notes art. 3., commonly with D. Bonav. in 4. dist. 15. p. 2. art. 2. quaest. 1.; for this was commanded even in Deuter. 23.

Moreover, all Theologians and Canonists, as cited by Suar. tract. 1. l. 1. cap. 8. num. 14, assert that in the Church of grace the precept of offering first-fruits to God is broad in scope. See C. Revertimini 16. quaest. 1. and Greg. VII. cap. decimas 16. quaest. 7.